Does Porn Cause Brain Shrinkage?

Less grey matter is found in the brains of men who watch large amounts of pornography a German study found. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin scanned with MRI technology the brains of 64 health German men between the ages of 21 and 45 years old while observing how the brain reacted to pornography. Also the men completed survers about their consumption of pornography.

Researchers found that one brain region, associated with reward processing and motivated behaviour, was smaller in the brains of pornography watchers.

We found that the volume of the so-called striatum, a brain region that has been associated with reward processing and motivated behavior was smaller the more pornography consumption the participants reported,” Kühn told reporters, according to the Daily Mail. “Moreover we found that another brain region, that is also part of the striatum that is active when people see sexual stimuli, shows less activation the more pornography participants consumed, she said.

The study does not confirm whether watching pornography causes less grey matter, or whether people with certain brain types are more apt to watch pornography. More studies are needed the researches noted “to determine whether or not the lack of grey matter is a cause or effect of the porn consumption.”